The changes introduced by the BC government eliminate the conflict for provincially-regulated employees between the availability of 18 months of employment insurance benefits and only 12 months of job protection.

The three popular articles this week on HRinfodesk deal with current and 2018 payroll rates charts and complying with Bill 148 provisions that are in force January 1, 2018, as well as the equal pay for equal work provisions effective April 1, 2018.

We are signing off with a list of the top 10 most read First Reference Talks posts 2016. Human rights issues and rules for termination notice seem to have been hot topics this year with several blog posts on the topics making it on the list. The top 10 most read First Reference Talks posts […]

As reported by Yosie Saint-Cyr in the October 24, 2016 edition of HR Infodesk, the federal Employment Insurance Act was amended on June 22, 2016, in part to decrease the waiting period for benefits to commence from two weeks to one week. The new waiting period is to commence on January 1, 2017. The change, in effect, reduces the total benefit entitlement period under EI, although it doesn’t change the maximum benefit period, or weeks of benefits payable.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Small Claims Court recently concluded that, when an employee returned from maternity leave and was not reinstated to her original position with the same hours and salary, this constituted constructive dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of sex and family status.

On June 13, 2013, a Nova Scotia Human Rights Board of Inquiry rendered its decision on the pregnancy related case I discussed last month. Essentially, the case was about a difference of opinion and a clash of wills between two strong-minded individuals. The fact that the employee was pregnant at the time was simply ruled to be a “temporal coincidence”.

Pregnant employees or those employees intending to become pregnant, enjoy significant protection under various provincial and federal statutes. This article will explore the protections provided by the Ontario Human Rights Code, Employment Standards Act, and the Employment Insurance Act.

Under employment standards legislation, birth mothers receive a total of 52 weeks of leave when they combine maternity (17 weeks) and parental leave (35 weeks), and are entitled to receive a total of 50 weeks of EI benefits (15 weeks maternity, 35 weeks parental) for that period. However, the same benefits are not available to adoptive mothers, who only receive 37 weeks of parental leave and 35 weeks of EI benefits. Now a new movement to challenge the law to provide equal EI benefits to adoptive parents is gaining momentum…

Employers might not be clear on what happens after a female employee returns from her pregnancy/maternity leave of absence. Does the employee have to be reinstated to the exact position once she returns to work? Is it acceptable to place the employee in a different yet similar position? What if that position does not exist any longer? What if the employee must be terminated for other reasons not having to do with the pregnancy?